Sticky Notes
by ShippingWriter
Summary: Gilbert Beilschmidt wants to grab the attention of Matthew Williams, the boy in the library. But how is he supposed to do that when they've never met? He doesn't even know what kind of things he likes! But there has to be something he can do! Maybe a pad of sticky notes could come in handy... [Human AU]


Gilbert Beilschmidt crouched behind the bookshelf in the library, writing carefully on a sticky note pad. He glanced up quietly at a blonde boy at the closest work table who was writing quietly in his notebook. Both boys were in college, and even though they didn't share any classes, Gilbert had taken a liking to the blonde, who's name was Matthew Williams. Now, as Matthew shifted his papers around and frowned, Gilbert finished up his sticky note and clicked his pen as quietly as possible. Matthew shifted his papers some more and then huffed, standing up and stretching slightly on his way over to the bookshelf that held the reference books. Gilbert quietly snuck over to Matthew's notebook and peeled the sticky note off of the pad, sticking it to his notebook and then sneaking back over to behind the shelf.

"How many books am I going to need for this one assignment...?" Matthew whispered to no one in particular, pulling a leather-bound book off of the shelf and taking it back to his desk with him. He set it down and opened it up, reading a few lines and then picking his pencil up.

"What the-" He set his pencil down and, looking around himself, confused, peeled the sticky note off of his notebook, reading it silently to himself.

 _Your eyes are a really pretty shade of purple 3_

Matthew turned bright red and looked around the mostly empty library once again, to no avail. No one seemed to be looking at him. He sighed and read the note one more time, before folding it in half and sticking it in his backpack. Smiling quietly to himself, we went back to working on his assignments.

Gilbert, who was watching the whole thing from behind the bookcase, smiled quietly to himself as well. He had been doing this for the past hour, sneaking little compliments written on sticky notes onto Matthew's work. As Matthew wrote into his notebook, Gilbert clicked his pen again and began writing another little note. He started, stopped, then tore the note off and started a different one, a plan formulating in his mind.

Matthew sighed again, rubbing his forehead.

"One more book, then I can go back to my dorm and take a nap... maybe I'll order a pizza, that sounds good right about now..." He muttered, yawning and stretching before getting up to go to the bookshelf again. He had been working for awhile, so his vision was starting to blur. He almost didn't notice when his glasses started to slide down his nose, and he definitely didn't notice a certain German sneaking over to his spot. He pushed his glasses back up with another small yawn and grabbed a book, looking in the index and then putting it back going quickly back to his table. Matthew quickly scribbled the information down into his notebook and then sighed happily, shutting his notebook and gathering the ten or so library books he'd taken off the shelf.

After returning the books to their places on the shelf, he began to gather his things up again, when he stopped cold.

"My... where's my phone?" He muttered, pushing papers and things around the desk, starting to sweat. A cold chill hit him when he realized it wasn't there. He dug frantically through his backpack, but no phone. He checked everything on the table again, but no phone. As a last resort, he opened his notebook back up to see if maybe he accidentally closed his phone in it. No phone, but there was a new sticky note. Sighing, Matthew plopped down into the chair and pulled it off the page.

 _Do you want your phone back? Come by the Last Resort coffee house. I'll be there. You'll know which one I am._

Matthew's face turned red with anger, and he shoved his things into his backpack. Crumpling the sticky note up, he shoved that into his pocket and stormed out of the library. Not even bothering to drop his backpack off at his dorm first, Matthew went straight to the coffee house, stewing in anger. How dare someone take his phone?!

The inside of the coffee house had a cool, calming atmosphere, almost like a cave, except instead of stalactites and stalagmites, there were soft light fixtures and beanbag chairs. Matthew's eyes scanned the patrons, wondering which one was the newly-labeled jerk-wad that had stolen his phone. His eyes settles almost immediately on a tall, albino boy with a sticky note that said 'hi' attacked to his forehead. he knew he should be angry, but he couldn't help but laugh a little. _Who sticks sticky notes to their forehead?_

"Oh, hey! You're here!" Gilbert called, waving him over to his table. Matthew put on his angriest expression and walked over to his table, stopping next to it and shifting his weight onto one foot while putting his hand on his hip. To finish it off, he pulled his glasses down a little and glared at the boy down his nose.

"Boy, you look pissed about somethin'. Coffee?" Gilbert asked, motioning to a latte that sat abandoned across from him. Rolling his eyes, Matthew sat his bag down next to him and plopped down into the chair in front of the cup, still glaring.

"What'sa' matter?"

"You have my phone. I want it back." Matthew deadpanned, balling his right hand into a fist out of frustration.

"Oh, right, sorry. Here 'ya go." Gilbert pulled Matthew's phone out of his bag and handed it to him with a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that, it was the only way I could guarantee that you'd come here to see me."

"I don't usually try to make friends with thieves." Matthew muttered, immediately turning his phone over to check that it was okay, and then stuffing it deep down into his backpack.

"Aw, come on, Matthew! Don't be like that! Look, I bought you a coffee, so drink it and let me explain myself, okay?" Matthew froze.

"How do you know my name? We've never met." He asked, looking at him carefully, one hand resting on his backpack in case he needed to run. "That seems a little stalkerish, don't you think?"

"Calm down, I'm not stalking you. I saw you in the library, and you seemed cool, so I asked your brother, Alfred, about you. Name's Gilbert, by the way. Gilbert Beilschmidt." Gilbert said, taking a drink of his own coffee. Matthew looked between Gilbert and the door for a second debating whether to stay or run. Seeing this, Gilbert frowned and sighed.

"Look, I know stealing your phone to get you to talk to me was a scummy thing to do and I know you really don't have a reason to trust me right now, but I'm sorry, okay? Could you at least give me a chance? Please?" Matthew looked between Gilbert, the door, the coffee, then back to Gilbert again, before eventually sighing and letting go of his bag in favor of taking a sip of the coffee. Gilbert smiled.

"Thank you."

"Whatever, you have ten minutes to convince me not to leave and never speak to you again. But first, take that sticky note off of your forehead, you look ridiculous."

"That's fair." Gilbert said, pulling the sticky note off before finishing his coffee off and stretching his arms. "Alrighty. So, I know we've never met before. But I saw you in the library one day. You looked so smart and cool, but I didn't know you. So when I saw you walking home with Alfred one time, I talked to him to learn some stuff about you. Turns out, you're pretty awesome, Mr. pretty-much-a-pro-hockey-player." Matthew blushed a little at that, but kept his eyes on his coffee so that he didn't seem too interested in what Gilbert was saying.

"Alfred over-exaggerates a lot. I'm not that good."

"Whatever you say. So then, after that, I saw you in the library again. And so I decided to try to talk to you. Through sticky notes!" Gilbert grinned and held the note that had been on his forehead up.

"Those were you...?" Matthew asked, looking him in the eyes, slightly confused.

"Well ja, who did you _think_ it was? Santa Claus?" Matthew turned red again and ducked his head.

"No..." He muttered, taking another sip of the coffee.

"You're so cute. Anyway, so after awhile, I decided I really wanted to talk to you in person, but I needed an excuse to get you to leave the library and come somewhere with me, and I'll admit that my plan was kinda crappy, but it worked! So please don't hate me..."

That last comment made Matthew look up. This person seemed to be calm, cool, collected, and pretty confident in his life choices. The last sentence had seemed completely out of character for him, despite them having just met, and somehow Matthew knew that he really meant it. Gilbert gave him a sort of pleading look, and Matthew set his cup down and smiled.

"I don't hate you... but I do think you could have come up with something else."

"Yeah, I know."

So they talked for awhile, both of them making each other laugh multiple times, and Matthew finished his coffee slower than he usually would, because he realized that Gilbert was actually a very interesting person to be around. When he finally did finish, the two of them said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

"Well, that was kind of nice... I think I can forgive him for stealing my phone..." Matthew muttered as he strolled down the sidewalk to his dorm. Absentmindedly, he pulled out his phone to check his text messages. When he turned his phone on, however, he realized that he hadn't locked it, and a document was open. It simply read 'contact me-Gilbert.' and had a phone number after it. Smiling quietly to himself, Matthew put the phone number into his contacts and texted him. A quick reply came soon after, asking how he was doing and if he'd forgiven him. Matthew replied with a simple 'yes' as he walked into his dorm, exhausted, and flopped down onto his bed. His roommate barely looked at him as he sighed and pulled his shoes off, curling up on top of the blankets and checking his phone again. There was one single message, from Gilbert.

"So, since you're not mad at me, maybe, you'd like to go out sometime? We could see a movie or whatever, and I promise not to take your phone again!"

Matthew smiled and typed what he knew was the only response he could give.

"I'd love to."


End file.
